40 replies to this topic

[orangeLJ]

Ive always loved this car Brett.

the wheels really do just make it that little bit different to everything on the road.

[LXCHEV]

Haha yeah, he needs the wagon for carrying around "stuff" - so it was a practical decision for him.

TJ - I work for a good company with a private car park, so I've never once been worried about the car. It'd be a different story if I was parking in some public multi-level carpark in the city, or leaving it at a train station or something though! At my work, I reckon I could leave the keys in the ignition with the windows down, and it still wouldn't get touched

[adrianh08]

Super jealous mate. I think every sedan owner like me has thought about how great it would be to have a hatchback as well, and you've done it. Very very nice.

[LXCHEV]

Cheers Adrian. I do love having one of each. I've considered selling the hatch in recent times for financial reasons, but I'm resisting and holding off! Hopefully I don't have to because I think good hatches are going to be worth a fortune in another 10 years time (assuming we still have petrol available to drive around our old dinosaurs, LOL). I think I'd regret selling it...

Anyway, more pics:

Towing our clubs Torana BBQ trailer..





Eastside Cruisers Dyno Day... she made a massive 86.3 Killer-Wasps at the rear wheels. Pretty dismal, but interestingly - the dyno operator said the factory 2 barrel carby is strangling it (WW Stromberg). The manifold vacuum at W.O.T. was massive. I have plans to fit a quaddy on top of a Performer manifold that I picked up from Cohen (makka) ages ago. I've also replaced the points dizzy with an electronic dizzy and HEI coil, and the exhaust system has been replaced for a new twin 2" now as well. I just need a good set of extractors, and I'm sure these simple mods will shoot her up over 100kw hopefully. I like doing things in stages to see what happens..





Early in 2007, I had some minor paintwork done by my local panel shop.

In this shot you can see the nosecone is badly chipped and looking pretty sad (actually the pic doesn't show it very well, but it was terrible!)....



Here it is after a strip-down and fresh coat of paint, amazing the difference just painting one small area of the car can make:



As you can see, I've also fitted plain silver headlight surrounds, and I've started changing the bumpers over to rubberless (only done the front one so far, so I have a mis-matched car at the moment!!)

Edited by LXCHEV, 29 July 2010 - 11:49 PM.

[LXCHEV]

Cheers Bomber.

Paul - Yeah I saw that A9X BBQ, that was an ace looking bit of gear! I would love to build one like that for my house one day. As for the bumper, knoath actually put me onto that one at a wrecker over near Craigieburn somewhere, it was a good price so I grabbed it. They do pop up fairly regularly on Ebay and certain wreckers, but like you said, rubber-less bars can be expensive these days because everyone wants them. I freaked out when I priced up re-chroming - it costs around $350 per bar these days, so I won't be doing that in any hurry!!!!

PS. Shubes is just my nickname, all my mates call me Shubes (shortened version of my surname).

One day if I ever get to do a full rebuild of this car, I'd like to change the plates to something more Torana-related, but I haven't had any good ideas yet. I liked 'NEATLX' (currently for sale on these forums) - something like that would be cool.

[LXCHEV]

BIG NEWS TODAY - the mighty hatchback is SOLD :(

Got picked up tonight. Good news though, the new owner lives local, so I should still see this baby cruising the streets. The car is finally going to live in a garage and will be looked after much better than I ever could.

On to the next adventure!

[LXCHEV]

Just reminiscing about life's previous chapters. It's 15 years this year, since I sold my old daily driven hatchback. Can't believe how fast that's gone!

 

[Hatchback13]

Some of the cars we wish we kept. Get daily. Cheers

[MRLXSS]

Just reminiscing about life's previous chapters. It's 15 years this year, since I sold my old daily driven hatchback. Can't believe how fast that's gone!

 

After you mentioned this the other night after the Eastside Meeting, I was reminiscing on the drive home how cool that car was! Have you heard or seen anything about it since you sold it? 15 years... surely he must have finished the rebuild! haha

Edited by MRLXSS, 28 February 2025 - 04:49 PM.

[LXCHEV]

Yeah absolutely - the car stayed local funnily enough. New owner is a legend and kept in touch. The car copped a full rotisserie build and was put back on the road again. Local Melbourne folk would have spotted it on some of the Vic Torana Club Maroondah Dam cruises... he changed the wheels so it's not easy to associate as the same car anymore...

 

From what I understand, he didn't change too much mechanically, but did get rid of the old 2 barrel carb and finally gave it a new lease on life with an upgraded intake and 4 barrel (which woke it up and gained a stack of power as I'd always predicted). Has also gone for a blacked-out look with certain components.

 

 Hatch01.JPG   78.44K   5 downloads

[MRLXSS]

It still looks as great! I'll keep my eyes peeled for it around the traps!